Reginald Dumas
THE Ninth Summit of the Americas will be held early next month in Los Angeles. At the time of this writing, it seems the US, as host country, will not be inviting Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Why, since three countries participated in the seventh summit (Panama 2015) and the eighth (Peru 2018)? And since the US was present at both, Barack Obama in Panama and Mike Pence in Peru? What's the problem now?
In Cuba's case, I assume it must be largely one of US domestic politics. More than six decades after the revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista, Cuban exiles and their US-born descendants, ensconced in Florida and elsewhere in the US, still hymn immutable anti-Castrista bitterness and revenge.
A meeting on US soil to which their enemy is invited would drive them to punish the Democrats in the mid-term Congressional elections later this year.
President Biden, already lagging in the polls, and faced with all manner of internal difficulties, might see his House of Representatives majority considerably shrink, and a Republican-controlled Senate emerge.
There is another factor: the colonialist 1823 Monroe Doctrine, by which America arrogated to itself the headmastership of the western hemisphere, and for the last 60 years has been caning Cuba for misbehaviour in daring to follow its own governance and ideological path. And, worse, refusing to be cowed or to collapse.
Justifications given for the US embargo and other sanctions, which have severely affected the island, include Cuba's unwillingness to 'democratise,' and its 'state-sponsored terrorism.'
But there are many thoughtful Americans today who feel that their country is in several areas - voting procedures, race, societal equity, human rights, etc - drifting away from proclaimed democratic tradition and practice. And can anyone tell me where in this hemisphere, or outside, Cuba is 'sponsoring terrorism?'
Where Nicaragua is concerned, Daniel Ortega and his wife strike me as bent on keeping power in their marital grip, and their country in a kind of developmental penumbra.
They were however placed there by their compatriots. It may well be that Nicaragua's electoral system is flawed, but on this issue, the US itself is living in a glass house.
Nicolás Maduro faces legal trouble in the US, and, diplomatic immunity notwithstanding, wouldn't attend the summit if invited.
However, does the US recognise his government, or still feel that the real President of Venezuela is the hapless Juan Guaidó?
If Guaidó's their man, why did they send an official delegation to Caracas several months ago to hold talks with Maduro? Whom does the US recognise as the legitimate leader of Venezuela?
I thought the May 3 Washington speech by Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, at a luncheon of the Council of the Americas, might shed some light on my areas of darkness. Not unexpectedly, Blinken said nothing specific about US domestic politics or the exclusion of any country from the summit.
But he did make some points
